French President Francois Hollande meets Chuo

Students and President of Chuo had an opportunity to meet with French President Francois Hollande, who was in Japan on a state visit from June 6. On June 7, President Hollande met with cultural figures at the Nezu Museum, where President Norihiko Fukuhara and Faculty of Letters Professor Nobutaka Miura (Standing Director of Maison Franco-Japonaise) were invited to attend. President Fukuhara had the opportunity to directly speak with President Hollande, stating “I would like to strive for active interaction between universities and students in order to build future Japanese-French relations,” and received words of encouragement in return from the President. The following day, on June 8 at the French Institute in Iidabashi (former Japanese-French Academy), a discussion meeting between President Hollande and university students took place, with five students from our university invited to attend.

In these events, where important cabinet members such as Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius and Minister Delegate with responsibility for Small and Medium Enterprises, Innovation, and the Digital Economy Fleur Pellerin also participated, the expansion of future exchanges between Japanese and French students was among thetopics discussed, as well as economic exchanges, Japanese-French art theory and French language research.

The participating students from Chuo were greatly stimulated by the exchange between more than 100 highly conscious French people from the same generation and other Japanese university students.

Chuo University is actively expanding academic and cultural exchanges and student exchanges with France.
Every year we hold the International Week with the aim of promoting internationalization and motivating student intellectual curiosity. The inaugural event (June 2011) started with France Week, which involved a lecture from then French Ambassador to Japan Philippe Faure.

Also, as part of our 125th anniversary celebrations, prominent French economist Jacques Attali gave a lecture, further deepening our relationship with France.

More recently, in May 2012, Chuo became the first Japanese university to join the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, an international network of universities and higher learning institutions that focus on the French Language, actively promoting exchange activities for researchers and students.

The meeting with President Hollande was based on globalization promotion movements such as researcher exchange activities, and was an opportunity to further accelerate Chuo University international exchanges.